1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to semiconductor technology, and in particular, to a new microelectronic semiconductor technology, advanced computer architecture, special electronic device architecture, and affiliated highly efficient subsystems of cooling and power supply for electronic circuits. Also the invention relates to a multiprocessor network architecture and the methods to achieve maximum data throughput of the network. Finally, the present invention relates to applications of the above technology.
2. Description of the Prior Art
No signals, in any type of media, can propagate faster than the speed of light. The propagation speed of signals in electronic circuitry in conventional media currently cannot exceed one-half this rate due to the factors associated with Resistance/Capacitance (RC) time constants, and this speed is achievable only by applying comparatively large quantities of power by signal transmitters that have to switch greater amounts of current for faster recharging of the electrical capacitance of the conductive media. These large amounts of electrical power create inordinate amounts of heat in both the output switches and conductors, which must be dissipated.
A better method of semiconductor and microchip interconnections is achieved via fiber optics technology since the problems associated with RC time delay do not apply. Although fiber optic interconnections offer some degree of solutions to these problems, it is still necessary to minimize the length of the conduction paths; and this is dependent upon the topology and size of the electronic devices involved. Therefore, in order to increase processing speed, the electronic components must be compressed into an extremely compact arrangement, which also results in the accumulation of an excessive amount of heat that must be dissipated.
Another problem affiliated with such a compact arrangement is that of the creation of unwanted noise, and signal-to-signal and signal-to-power interference resulting from the distribution of comparatively high electric current inside a small volume. These phenomena require special tracing for both power and signal conductors in high frequency circuits.
Most current computer research and development projects proceed along one of two primary directions. One is that used in the manufacture of supercomputers such as CYBER or CRAY, and the other is the design of microsystems based on highly efficient, extremely fast microprocessors similar to INTEL 80486, INTEL I-960 or Motorola MC-68000. Both of these directions are limited, however, by the necessity of short, fast interconnections between large numbers of microchips, boards and units, and cooling requirements of all systems and each individual microchip and power supply.
In most single and multiprocessor systems, all sub-unit interconnections occur through either one, two or occasionally three system buses. Therefore, at a single point in time, no more than two devices (active-bus master and passive-slave) may share a bus, which severely restricts inter-unit communications. This is probably the most consequential limiting factor inherent in conventional computer design in that when the bus is being used by one unit for one function, all other processes are disconnected leaving valuable resources remaining idle.
One of the most recent classes of computational media is based on the "transputers network". A transputer is a special processor, usually based on very large scale integration (VLSI) technology, which has been assigned a set of special instructions and includes input/output circuitry that allows it to be interconnected directly with two or more other transputers, thereby eliminating the need to share the system bus. Usually a transputer network is controlled by a master processor that shares the system bus with other units.
Transputers are designed to perform specific tasks such as solving a series of differential equations or similar exclusively designated function, the results of which are used by the master processor. In spite of being highly efficient in mathematical processing, transputers retain the same weaknesses inherent in other microchips. They still require a supply of electrical power, a method of heat dissipation, and conventional interconnection with other chips, because the usual method of mounting the chips is on the planar surface of a board.
The above-described shortcomings, and other shortcomings of prior art semiconductor technology, are effectively overcome by the present invention, as described in further detail below.